Make neighbours out of strangers

ALTHOUGH I have seen virtually nothing of it on television this year, I did manage to get to Wimbledon itself earlier this week.

I had a meeting in London and managed to take the time to zoom over to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for a couple of glorious hours.

I saw some tennis from the more mature stars, though I find it difficult to believe Tracy Austin and Kathy Rinaldi are now in that category.

It was lovely tennis to watch, and these more settled players are so entertaining. I suppose they have lost the youthful ambition and aggression, but they are just so nice to each other.

I couldn't stay long, as I had also booked to go and see Calendar Girls on stage. That is just such a delightful, heart-warming and inspiring story.

I had originally hoped to see it with my son, George, who is at drama school in London. But they work them very hard where he is, and he had to continue late into the evening on the day in question. So I went on my own, as I had to Wimbledon.

One of the joys of the African Sanctus and percussion concert I was enthusing about last week was going to it with two African visitors.

Bishop Gideon and Archdeacon John are from the Diocese of Thika which is in Kenya. They were staying with us for a week, and I thought I just had to bring them to a concert with such an African feel to it.

Being able both to share and discuss it with them subsequently added to the whole experience for me.

Sharing almost whatever it is that life is constantly offering us is an important aspect of the enjoyment.

Sometimes there is not much alternative; I quite often find myself exploring new places and people on my own.

That's always good, but I usually miss the companionship in the experience when I don't have it.

I longed to share the moment when I found myself face to face with a huge block of stone in the Arizona Desert called the 'Meyrick Butt' — well, it wasn't quite spelt like that, but that's how it pronounced itself in my head!

One of the distinctive things about Judaism and Christianity is the sense they share of religion being very much about community.

Even the Desert Fathers in 4th-century Egypt, who went to shut themselves off from the world, knew they had fellow hermits not very far away from them.

"Love your neighbour as yourself" is found in the Old Testament as well as the New. Jesus claimed that it was one of the two foundation stones of living life fully.

Many of you will have either experienced or read about the huge celebrations held on Exeter's Cathedral Green last weekend.

Over the Saturday more than 5,000 people gathered to celebrate 1,100 years of the Diocese that has served the church and people of Devon.

There were two huge services outside, and lots of different events and activities between. We heard the Archbishop of Canterbury rejoice with us and remind us of the glory of God already given to us individually and as the Church in Devon.

The day before he had been in Crediton where the diocese began, and there he produced what for me was a really memorable line. It is God's purpose, he said, to make neighbours out of strangers.

That seems to me to be a marvellously neat summary. It is also a challenge: how well do we respond to the imperative to make neighbours out of strangers? For all of us, it should be part of our raison d'être.